On the shaft front

The True Temper Dynamic Gold X100 steel shaft is by far the most popular iron shaft on the PGA Tour, but some players are going softer. At the John Deere Classic, K.J. Choi, Danny Lee and Stephen Gangluff switched into the Dynamic Gold S400.

Zach Johnson won the John Deere with a Mitsubishi Rayon Blue Board 73X shaft in his Titleist 910D2 driver (9.5 degree).

Blake Adams played the John Deere Classic with Aldila prototype graphite iron shafts in his TaylorMade Tour Preferred MC irons.

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New Titleist driver added to bags

At the John Deere Classic, the seeding process for the new Titleist 913 drivers continued for the third week. A total of 21 players put the driver in play, including first-time users Tim Clark, Ben Crane and Bobby Gates.

Of 156 players at the U.S. Amateur Public Links Championship, 121 played Titleist balls.

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Matteson carries new driver

Troy Matteson, who lost to Zach Johnson in a playoff at the John Deere Classic, used a TaylorMade R11S driver. Following the advice of TaylorMade fitters, Matteson’s new driver was 44.75 inches – 1 inch shorter than standard. The loft was 8.5 degrees, and the face was 1 degree closed.

Short shots: According to the official equipment report from the European Tour, 39.7 percent of the field in the Scottish Open carried Odyssey putters. . . . At the John Deere, Zach Johnson used his SeeMore FGP putter and moved into the PGA Tour’s No. 1 position in strokes gained/putting. . . . At the Scottish Open, winner Jeev Milkha Singh played a Callaway Hex Black ball. Francesco Molinari, who lost to Singh in a playoff, used a Nike 20XI-X ball. . . . At the U.S. Senior Open, Tom Kite used an Odyssey White Hot Long putter in shooting a record 28 on his first nine holes. Kite had 11 putts. . . . Chez Reavie and Pat Perez switched putters. Reavie changed to a TaylorMade Ghost Spider belly putter and Perez switched to a conventional-length Ghost Tour DA-12.